different between gawk vs peruse

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???k/
• Rhymes: -??k
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /??k/

Etymology 1

From a variant of gowk, from Middle English gowke, goke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”). Cognate with Danish gøg, Swedish gök, German Gauch, Old English ??ac. More at yeke.

Compare also French gauche, and English gawky and gallock.

Noun

gawk (plural gawks)

1. A cuckoo.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

2. A fool; a simpleton; a stupid or clumsy person.
   • 1855 Thomas Carlyle, The Prinzenraub, Westminster Review

     A Duke of Weissenfels, for instance; foolish old gawk, whom Wilhehnina Princess Royal recollects for his distracted notions, — which were well shaken out of him by Wilhelmina's Brother afterwards.

Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from English dialectal gaw (“to stare; gawk”) +? -k, as in talk, stalk, etc., ultimately from Old Norse gá (“to heed”).

Verb

gawk (third-person singular simple present gawks, present participle gawking, simple past and past participle gawked)

1. To stare or gape stupidly.
2. To stare conspicuously.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stare

Derived terms

• gawker

Translations

References

English

Etymology

From per- +? use, from either Medieval Latin (peruti, perusitare (“wear out”)) or Anglo-Norman (peruser (“use up”)), originally leading to two concurrent meanings, but only those derived from "to examine" survive today.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /p???u?z/
• Rhymes: -u?z

Verb

peruse (third-person singular simple present peruses, present participle perusing, simple past and past participle perused)

1. (transitive) To examine or consider with care.
2. (transitive) To read completely.
3. (transitive, informal) To look over casually; to skim.
4. (intransitive, regional) To go from place to place; to wander.

Usage notes

• The sense of "skimming" is proscribed by some authorities on usage, including the Oxford American Dictionary. The shift, however, is not dissimilar to that found in scan, and thus, interestingly, peruse and scan are a synonym pair in which each is a contranym meaning either "to read carefully" or "to read hastily". To avoid ambiguity—and reader annoyance—careful writers may prefer skim when skimming is meant or scrutinize when care is meant. The Oxford English Dictionary further notes that the word peruse was used as a general synonym for read as far back as the 16th century.

Derived terms

• perusable
• perusal
• peruser

Translations

Noun

peruse (plural peruses)

1. An examination or perusal; an instance of perusing.
   • 2008, Dave Robson, "Hi-tea, low cost!", Evening Gazette online, September 12,

     A peruse of the website looked promising […]

Translations

Anagrams

• persue, purees, purées, rupees

Latin

Participle

peruse

1. vocative masculine singular of perusus